


Emerald

by RedSpades_and_BlackDiamonds



Category: Nemesis - April Daniels
Genre: Danielle gets to be happy for a while, F/F, Lesbian Character, Modern AU, Sapphic, Somewhat, Trans Female Character, Trans Lesbian Character, Utopia doesn't do her shit for another couple years
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-03-18
Updated: 2017-07-22
Packaged: 2018-10-07 01:38:14
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,741
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10349523
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RedSpades_and_BlackDiamonds/pseuds/RedSpades_and_BlackDiamonds
Summary: A slight rewrite of at least some things of the novel. The premise is that Danielle is generally able to stand up to her parents more from the beginning, goes to school earlier, and.. mainly, that Utopia does not rise for until years after she does in the canon. Danielle gets to be a girl for a lot longer while exploring capeing without doing nearly as constant investigation as she had to do in the novel.INDEFINITE HIATUS/ABANDONDED :/





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> As far as I can tell, this is the first work! It's.. gonna be great.

__ Trigger Warnings for this chapter: F slur, slut shaming (misdirected), body shaming, abusive family dynamics  
  
Setting: Night of Dreadnought’s Death, City Bus 

  
On the bus ride home that night I hear a lone voice mention Dreadnought’s death, looking up from her. The chatter in the bus stops and she says the sentence again, “ _ Dreadnought is dead _ ,” she looks up again and briefly shows the article on her android before bringing it back in front of her face. Her hair, dyed purple with black streaks throughout it covers her face depressingly as she reads out an article written by NewPortNews, or so it was, according to her. It sounds vaguely reminiscent of their writing style, but it was very clear that the author couldn’t remain unbiased and was just barely holding back blatant laments over the loss of Dreadnought.    
  
I’d seen him die, and I still couldn’t believe it. There was a sort of numb feeling in my chest and when I bring my arms up to my chest, I vaguely feel that something is different but ignore the difference in the numbness and bothered state. But even the depression and sense of loss at his death doesn’t manage to even nearly replace or subjugate the excitement that seems to radiate from my entire body. So, utilizing my skill of suppressing any Wrong emotions and absolutely preventing them from showing on my face, I hide the smile that wants to burst forth as I think of what Dreadnought wound up doing for me, and mask it with a frown. It is not the easiest to apply the opposite of what I usually do, having only ever practiced the skill with my Dad around, bearing a smile as he calls me faggot and other dirty words, pretending to not let them get to me. Now it is simply the opposite, wear the frown while I so deeply want to proclaim how happy I feel on the inside.

 

As the bus approaches the stop before mine, I suddenly realize that if my voice has changed so suddenly and dramatically, then logically speaking, other parts of me likely have as well. It might have been possible to simply grunt my way into my bedroom if I still looked like Daniel Tozer, but if I was currently looking like the Danielle Tozer I’d always been inside, even grunting wouldn’t be able to get me out the mess I’ll be in. I start thinking of all the possibilities for how I can stay the night. Between going to David’s house ( _ ehhhhhhh _ ), attempting to sleep our in the streets for the night, not sleeping, and going home, it is a wonder that going home is the choice I think is the best for me. And it is right around when I arrive at the bus stop that my phone buzzes.  
  


_New Text Message. From: Mom_ __  
__Where are you Daniel, get home this instant!  
  
  
I sigh, wishing I hadn’t even bothered to take my phone out of my pocket. I look it over once and shoot a quick reply back: __I’m on my way, be home in a few minutes before continuing, desperately trying to think of a cover story to use. I decide on something close enough to the truth I should be able to sell the lie convincingly enough.

  
Walking is.. rather unusual now with my new body. I noticed it a little bit when I first transformed, but between lacking certain articles of clothing and other major differences, walking was a whole new experience on a couple of levels already. I knock when I reach the house, preparing my face with the frown my parents would expect from their supposed son gaining a body so contrasting to the one he is supposed to want. The one situation, it seems, I failed to predict was that with a new voice and new body, my parents literally would not recognize me. Somewhere within my mind, I think a happy thought that I look so different that I’m unrecognizable from even a day old picture of me.    
  
So when my parents open the door, I suppose they must have seen a beautiful girl trying to convince them she was their son. It wasn’t until I divulged personal information about myself that they started believing I could be their child, possibly. I explained what I could about the change, and told them it was a superpowered villain who did this. 

I try to explain, “I was across town when there was some sort of attack. All I saw was a blast from some gun. It didn’t hit me but when I rushed to the scene to see what was up, and yes Dad I know I should have known better than doing that, but I wasn’t exactly thinking straight at the time. I rushed over and was there for a few minutes when my vision just. Went white. I don’t know what happened or if I got hit by something else but when I woke up, my body had.. changed to this and my voice became.. what you’re hearing right now.”   
  
Mom frets and pouts in the corner of my vision. She doesn’t know what to do, or what to say, it seems. Dad, on the other hand, wants to shout. I’ve been through enough of his shouting matches to know when he is going to start up again, but there is also a clear look of confliction within him. I can’t say for sure, but it feels like he doesn’t know who to be shouting at. He finally makes up his mind and a roaring sound fills the home, “Boy! How are you supposed to become a strong, honorable man if you look like a filthy hooker who doesn’t eat because it gets her off or gets her out of whatever depression, idiotic mood she’s in! How is a flimsy man like you going to be a star football player! How dare you hurt your mother and I by transforming into some sort of disgusting freakshow!” If I hadn’t had years of practice, I might have started crying. Instead, I take the verbal blows, glad he seems too distracted to consider getting physical tonight.  
  
Before he can continue he tirade, I quietly slip into the bedroom for the night. I hear a few bangs on the door later on in the evening, but they quickly slip into silence as he gives up bothering me for the night.    
  
That night, I work on my homework and, just as importantly, look at my new body in the mirror. It’s incredible, really. I’ve researched for a long time the effects of HRT, and short of doing a variety of surgeries, there is no way a change like this could ever be effected. With the thought of this miracle, I fall asleep in my bed.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Danielle goes to school

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't expect another chapter any time soon, really.  
> I just sorta saw a thing I had laying around for it, decided that it was good enough to publish. 
> 
> It's not as far as I had meant to originally get with this chapter when I stopped writing it, not nearly, but I figured I'd post it because it *is* at a place that's decent enough for stopping at.
> 
> Thanks for reading!
> 
> TW for this chapter: Transphobia, misgendering, deadnaming

I wake up. It takes a few minutes to get out of my groggy state before I stand up and face the mirror in my room. Something’s off about my complexion, it’s feminine. I lower my vision slightly, breasts? The events of yesterday come back to me and I remember Dreadnought’s death, the blinding white light, and reawakening. I vaguely feel some guilt for benefiting so directly from his death, but this body staves away my dysphoria so much I can’t help but feel happy at the result. 

I get dressed. I avoid my usual jeans, which are now pinching my waist in favor of some shorts, not having any long pants that fit. My legs are magically shaven, which I didn’t notice before and is mildly uncomfortable. It’s not the best fit, but they do well enough that I’m not being pinched by them, unlike nearly everything else I try on. I manage to locate a top. It is a little shorter than it used to be, with new intrusions causing problems. I find a sweatshirt and throw it on top of it. It’s baggy enough, not everything is hidden but it does most of what’s needed, especially if I hunch over a little. 

My parents are waiting for me when I get downstairs. My dad sees me and starts, “What is that. That’s not a respectable outfit for a man! Go back to your room right now Daniel and change back into something fitting! That’s not fitting for even wearing around the house or to a doctor’s! Change this instant!” Mom sort of pouts at my choice of clothing. Meanwhile I am confused, though I quickly realize that I should have seen this coming, Of course there is no way Dad would ever let me go to school as a girl. Just because my body is that of a magic fairy tail, that certainly doesn’t make the rest of the world a magic fairy world too! I’m so stupid! Still, I can tell that there’s no way I’m getting out through the front door today. Perhaps the window will work though. 

Pretending to go into my room to change, I immediately open up the window. As I jump out of it, I briefly see a weird grid pop over the world but it vanishes when I don’t pay attention to it. I figure maybe I’ll get back to it some other time. Slipping out of the window, I escape the house and begin running to a bus stop a few minutes away, and board the bus. 

 

Setting: School, Day after Dreadnought’s death

I meet up with David before school starts, but I don’t introduce myself to him. I don’t really want to interact with that many guys right now, but it seems that he very distinctly wants to interact with me. He walks up to me, “Hey I’m David. Probably the best guy you’re gonna manage to land around here with your looks so you may as well say yes.” I just look at him and then look around.

I tell him, “I’m sure that you’re trying to be entirely convincing and considerate and all that but I’m gonna have to turn you down. You might want to work on your attitude.” It was abundantly clear he was trying, badly, to hit on me and I didn’t know exactly what my thoughts on my best friend hitting on me were but I knew that it put a pit in my stomach and I was feeling distinctly uneasy around this side of David. I had never really seen it and had a feeling it was related to why we were never very popular.

The bus arrives on time, and I have thirty minutes before classes start. I first meet with my homeroom teacher. I knock on her door. She opens it to, of course, find a girl. “Hello..., I’m Daniel Tozer. I can’t explain why I’m looking like this and I don’t fully understand but until some things get figured out, I’d like it if I could attend class as simply a new student. I can assure you that my parents would be.. more than happy in the meantime for the larger populace to not be aware of what has happened. All you have to do is just let me walk in and call a different name when you call attendance. I’ll sit in my usual desk and you check off the name Daniel Tozer on the school attendance sheet. And believe me, I’d quite like just being able to hide through all of this.”

She stares. “You? You expect me to believe that kiddo? Look I didn’t get a notification of a new student so I don’t know what you think you’re talking about but it is pretty damn obvious to me that this is some sort of prank. We teachers develop a sense of this pretty quickly into our careers and I’ve been here a good long time. So why don’t you just get out of my office and leave me be, go bug your actual homeroom teacher won’t ya?”

“Oh.. yeah.” I look down at the floor, realizing how strange what I just said would sound to a teacher. I take my backpack off and rummage through it to find the day’s homework, as well as my binder. I take it out and show it to her, “Look. This is the homework I’ve been doing, and you can see what you’ve graded. I suppose I could have just stolen Daniel’s homeworks and pretended to be him, but that would be quite extensive for a simple prank don’t you agree?”

 

Looking me over again as well as the binder displayed openly on her desk and sighs deeply. “I’m not exactly convinced you are Daniel, but I can’t imagine any other reasonable scenarios. Overall this still feels a bit wrong, but I’m a teacher and I’ve got a duty to teach. If Daniel comes through this door at any point today, I’ll get your ass kicked out of school. But, if you are actually Daniel, then it’s my job to ensure you can keep attending school. So, I ask you this, if you don’t pretend to be a girl then is there any other way you will be able to continue attending classes or will this be essential?”

I pretend to take the time to consider other possibilities, but I already know the answer is no. In the end, I tell her, “I might be able to get away with going to school for a few days but in the end, I’ll be forced to stop going to school if my parents find out that ‘Daniel’ is attending school openly as Danielle. I think the only way I can attend school at this point and have them let me still stay at home is if I attend here under a different common name, even if it is still the same on the sheets and other things.” She looks over at me and tells me she will assist me in this.

After an awkward pause, she asks, “What name should I call role. I’d suggest Danielle, but I worry it might be too suspicious.” Before I can give a proper answer, I blurt out,

“Emerald. Emerald, uh.. Landel. Emerald Landel. Sorry I don’t know where that came from, but it does sound a fair amount like a name.” My teacher chuckles. “I’m sorry, I should go and explain this to my other teachers now before school begins.”

I manage to find all of the teachers I have for class that day except for my math teacher, who I have after lunch, so I figure I’ll simply find him after lunch and explain my situation. With the exception of him, all my teachers have so far been understanding and willing to do that for an indefinite amount of time.

The warning bell rings for five minutes to class and I rush in, happy with the progress I’ve made. Role call comes along and she hesitates when it comes to my name, before eventually calling “Emerald Landel.” I answer present. Students turn and swivel in their chairs. The world floats a bit around me and I slouch noticeable, hiding myself as much as I can in a room filled with my peers. I hear whispers of conversations, who’s that emerald girl? Isn’t that where Daniel sits? Is Daniel okay? Wonder what happened to the poor guy… I try my best to pay little attention to the conversations, knowing that they are talking about me. The rest of the class passes relatively without incident. I’m never forced to speak that class, nor draw any unnecessary attention to myself. 

Before I go to lunch, I use the bathroom and am a full foot through the men’s door before I realize that isn’t where I go in this body and turn around, hoping desperately I was unseen. Unfortunately, I was not. When I enter the women’s room, a girl says, “heh looks like you got messed up there.”

“Oh. um. Yeah, I did. Kind of awkward.”  
“Well yeah. I saw you in class today, you’re new here?”  
Shit, I hadn’t thought this far ahead! I hadn’t thought about the fact that new kids do sometimes make friends! “Oh, yeah, I am.” God this is awkward. “Um, I’m from Center High but my parents just moved here so I had to come with.”  
“Well nice to meet you, I’m Sarah.” She sticks her hand out and I put mine into hers and shake.


End file.
